During the past few years, the sport of racquetball has enjoyed a phenominal rise in popularity as indicated by the number of people who partake of the sport and the number of facilities being built to accommodate the players. Many racquetball texts and instructional classes are available to instruct a person in the rules and skills of playing the game of racquetball.
To play the game of racquetball, a person needs a racquet, a ball and a court to play on. There are a number of different brands of racquetballs to choose from with varying degrees of liveliness and playing life. In addition, there are numerous brands of racquets available which are made from a variety of materials such as wood, aluminum, fiberglass, etc. Although much effort has been expended in utilizing new materials for racquets, thera has been little attention devoted to the construction of the racquet handle.
The racquetball racquet is held by one hand when playing or making a shot. Unlike tennis where the wrist is held fairly stiff during a swing, a racquetball swing requires quick wrist action. It is therefore generally recognized that the wrist must be flexible as the racquet is moved through a swing to allow for a quick flexing or snapping action at the wrist. With the racquets currently existing on the market, a player has a tendency to grip the handle too tightly so that the wrist is not sufficiently flexible. This creates two problems, one of which may result in considarable arm soreness and the other of which may result in the lack of proper control and the subsequent failure to impart sufficient velocity to the racquet during the racquet swing. Consequently, it is a frequent occurrence for those first starting to play the game of racquetball and even those who have considerable racquetball experience to develop a stiff or sore arm after playing several games. Additionally, beginner players often find it frustrating not to have the racquet control which is necessary for an accurate racquetball shot.
The overly tight grip is a result of the general configuration of current racquetball racquet handles. Such handles have the same general circumference or girth along the length of the handle. As a result, all the fingers of the player's hand may tightly grip the handle which causes the wrist and various arm muscles to tighten up. The resultant tightness of the player's wrist and arm contributes to the stiffness or soreness in one's playing arm and furthermore, to the improper control of the racquet during the swing. In addition, current handles somewhat deter quick and accurate movement of the racquet to a position where it can strike an approaching racquet ball. Because of the relatively short back swing the wrist is very important for imparting velocity to the racket during a racquet serving.
The sport of golf has seen many modifications made to the handle of golf clubs, as evidenced by the patents to Serblin U.S. Pat. No. 3,173,689, Rosan U.S. Pat. No. 1,690,312 and Hugman U.S. Pat. No. 2,376,010, in an effort to assure proper grip of a go1f club. However, the nature of a go1f swing is very unlike that of a racquetball swing. In a golf swing, the handle is held by two hands with the hand nearest the club head being the power hand which imparts most of the velocity to the club head. The above identified patents disclose golf club handles or attachments therefore which tend to reduce over-control of the club swing by the right hand and yet provide for sufficient power during the swing. Due to the substantial differences between a golf club swing and a racquetball racquet swing, the grip required is very dissimilar. Structural features utilized in a golf club handle which assure a more proper grip are not applicable to a racquetball racquet handle because of the great differences in the grip required. In addition to the differences in the swing, the differences in grip are also partially due to the relatively long shaft of a golf club and the construction thereof which enables a whipping or flexing action during the swing. There is no flexing of a racquetball racquet handle and therefore the wrist plays a major role in imparting sufficient velocity to the racquet. It is therefore not obvious to one skilled in tha racquetball art to apply the features disclosed in golf club handles to racquetball racquet handles.
Furthermore, the present invention includes features not obvious in view of the prior art which overcome the above identified problems and other problems associated with the prior art.